I'm so bad with spelling that I've learned how to do Google searches to try and find the word I'm looking for.

Why must English be so hard?

Because a bunch of French-speaking vikings invaded England and didn't want to learn the local language so they made up a monstrous fusion of both. Blame William of Normandy for that one.

@ Nyaliva and Beagle- Thanks for the support and the kind words.

@ Beagle again - Do say it like that, it makes me feel old!

*squees* The Battle of Hastings! I wrote about the evolution of the English language for my Western Civilization class this week.

And you're welcome!

If y'all want to get technical the english language ( at least before the colonialism era ) Was at it's core germanic with few hints of gaelic here and there (possibly some latin though thats debatable).

Then England saw the era of vikings raiders and incidentally adopted some elements of the norse language.

Finally after a few centuries William "the conqueror" invades England and decisively claims the throne for his own, thus ensuring his old french blended with the already confusing "old english" language to more or less get what we speak today.

Go on and correct me! (i know you want to)

_________________Extraordinary things happen to Extraordinary people!also . . . I'm the Best in the West!

Last edited by Duster on Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:50 am

0404

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

-edit nevermind it's too late.

Last edited by 0404 on Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:53 am

Radio Blue Heart

Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:27 pmPosts: 2642Location: North Carolina

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

Duster Wrote:

.

Go on and correct me! (i know you want to)

Now that you mention it, there really isn't a Gaelic influence on English. The Anglo-Saxons tended to wipe out most traces of Celtic language and culture in areas that they moved into. Most of the Latin was loan words.

_________________"I have known hardship and learned to aid the wretched."-Virgil

Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:12 am

Beagle

Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:09 pmPosts: 1641Location: North Carolina

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

Duster Wrote:

If y'all want to get technical the english language ( at least before the colonialism era ) Was at it's core germanic with few hints of gaelic here and there (possibly some latin though thats debatable).

Then England saw the era of vikings raiders and incidentally adopted some elements of the norse language.

Finally after a few centuries William "the conqueror" invades England and decisively claims the throne for his own, thus ensuring his old french blended with the already confusing "old english" language to more or less get what we speak today.

Go on and correct me! (i know you want to)

*Peers* Not sure how to regard that last line.

The invasion of England created Middle English indeed, and that evolved into Modern English as the time went on.

As Professor Elliot Engel calls it, English is Anglo-Saxon married to French. So you are correct in that respect.

@Radio- There are actually small traces of the Celtic language in English. But those roots are real, real old and faint.

_________________Let me tell you about Homestuck.

Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:18 am

Sleet

Bringing Foxy Back

Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:32 amPosts: 17043Location: Nephelokokkygia

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

Reading Scots just makes me feel alone in the world as an English speaker. If that's supposed to be the closest thing out there, I feel like such a weirdo.

I hear English is the hardest language to learn, followed second by German.

_________________Jeff "Clavy" Civit

Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:56 am

Beagle

Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:09 pmPosts: 1641Location: North Carolina

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

English is the fifth hardest language, I believe. The most difficult are Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, I think. It also depends on the speaker's native language. The romance languages, like Spanish, French, and Italian are easy to learn for native English speakers.

English is the fifth hardest language, I believe. The most difficult are Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese.

I blame the complex caligraphy of these languages. Even if one of us learned how to speak one of these languages it'd be an uphill battle trying to learn how to write them!p.s. The romance languages are often times too easy for their own good (except French, french is HARD).

_________________Extraordinary things happen to Extraordinary people!also . . . I'm the Best in the West!

Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:44 pm

jopencjusz

Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:48 pmPosts: 1012Location: Poznań (Poland)

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

I think that difference is your native language. For example, native English speaker, will have problems to learn Polish. I know some people who were born in USA, moved to Poland and stay here. Only one of them learn Polish on really good level. My English is far from being good, but it's enough to communicate fluently, even with native English speakers.

Student, basketball referee, activist in old basketball club and official member of this club

Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:52 pm

Radio Blue Heart

Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:27 pmPosts: 2642Location: North Carolina

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

The writing systems have a lot to do with it. There are about 40,000 characters in the Chines language because it is pictographic. And Chinese is a tonal language. The same word can have different meanings depending on what tone it is spoken in.

Arabic has no written vowels, only vowel markers. A reader has to look at the word and the context it is in to know vowels it has. Hebrew and Phoenician are the same way.

Russian is easy to learn because the Cyrillic alphabet has no diphthongs but a letter for every sound. The Serbs use the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for their language. I guess given their geographic location, close to Slavic peoples in the east that use Cyrillic like the Russians, Ukrainians and Bulgarians, and Slavic Peoples in the west that use the Latin alphabet like the Pols and the Czechs, they can communicate and learn each other's languages with greater ease.

One of the problems with learning English is it's French influence. The silent E is the bane of most students' existence. Of course I have heard that some people wanted to revise the English language and make it more Germanic in it's spelling. For example, instead of "fare" it would be "faer", or instead of "site" it would be "seit". Or some times the "E" would be eliminated completely so instead of "pole" it would be "pol".

German is a tough language to learn. I spent two semesters trying to learn it. After, I realized I should have learned Spanish instead.

_________________"I have known hardship and learned to aid the wretched."-Virgil

Sun Jan 13, 2013 1:22 pm

Sleet

Bringing Foxy Back

Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:32 amPosts: 17043Location: Nephelokokkygia

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

I would agree with that change. One of the more frustrating things about English is that you can't assume you know how a word is pronounced by its spelling. It was really refreshing in Spanish class how you could actually say words you hadn't seen before with confidence.

In My limited experienceRussian is incredibly difficult to learn (really anything that requires you learn a new alphabet as well as a language is going to be difficult) and German is pretty easy to pick up. These levels of difficult are of course relative to my position as a native English speaker.

I need to learn another language, if nothing else it'll allow me to remain in my naturally vulgar mode of speech around children.

_________________I think in Non-sequiturs

"I told you not to put metal in the science oven! What'd you do that for?"

Russian is easy to learn because the Cyrillic alphabet has no diphthongs but a letter for every sound. The Serbs use the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for their language. I guess given their geographic location, close to Slavic peoples in the east that use Cyrillic like the Russians, Ukrainians and Bulgarians, and Slavic Peoples in the west that use the Latin alphabet like the Pols and the Czechs, they can communicate and learn each other's languages with greater ease.

disregarding to their alphabet system, is Russian easy language to communicate and speak as well?

Russian is easy to learn because the Cyrillic alphabet has no diphthongs but a letter for every sound. The Serbs use the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for their language. I guess given their geographic location, close to Slavic peoples in the east that use Cyrillic like the Russians, Ukrainians and Bulgarians, and Slavic Peoples in the west that use the Latin alphabet like the Pols and the Czechs, they can communicate and learn each other's languages with greater ease.

disregarding to their alphabet system, is Russian easy language to communicate and speak as well?

Yes. My friend Jonathan speaks Russian. He says that it is much simpler than English. You can communicate more information with fewer words. You just have to get past the Cyrillic alphabet.

A lot of countries in central Asia have it as a second language for inter-ethnic communication. And, some languages, like Mongolian, adopted the Cyrillic alphabet over their original Chinese based scripts.

_________________"I have known hardship and learned to aid the wretched."-Virgil

Having so much trouble going to sleep, but then again - i'm on the PC too much. Maybe i should cut down on that... D:

I'd try reading a book. That usually gets me sleepy in a matter of minutes. Or you could impose a strict online/offline curfew so that your not glued to the screen past midnight. How late have you been staying up till?

_________________Extraordinary things happen to Extraordinary people!also . . . I'm the Best in the West!

Sun Jan 13, 2013 5:09 pm

Sleet

Bringing Foxy Back

Joined: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:32 amPosts: 17043Location: Nephelokokkygia

Re: Chat Thread 39: A Heartwarming Children's Movie

I second the idea of forcing yourself to shut the computer off at a certain hour.

In modern times, humanity got really absorbed by computers, especially by internet which gives us worldwide access at home.Imagine what would happen if suddenly internet got switched off on entire planet. It would be a pure disaster.

GameCobra Wrote:

Having so much trouble going to sleep, but then again - i'm on the PC too much. Maybe i should cut down on that... D:

Just like Sleet said earlier, you should make a plan for a shedule when you sit on computer and for how long. It might be a step to help you free yourself from this grasp. But to make it work, you must want it and be sure in its realization.

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